I am renowned for creating an approach to helping people called EFT – Emotionally Focused Therapy.
But with the holiday season just around the corner, how about a different kind of EFT – EXTREMELY FABULOUS TRIFLE – just like my mother used to make in our working-class English pub.
This trifle induces similar effects as EFT therapy, creating sensations of calm and happiness, recalibrating your nervous system, guiding you to emotional balance, and changing negative thoughts – well, at least for a while!
This recipe is enhanced with large glasses of port, sherry, or gin and tonic, consumed by the cook throughout the process. The taste is further improved by singing old, corny English songs like- Roll Out the Barrel or We’ll Meet Again – Don’t Know Where Don’t Know When.
You need the following to begin:
A bottle of sherry or port.
Note that all silly recipes talking about using only tablespoons of booze should be immediately discarded.
Two simple pound cakes to line a large bowl
Two packets of frozen raspberries – unfrozen and drained (keep the juice)
2 tins of peaches – drained (keep the juice)
Two packets of raspberry jello
One or two bananas (cut into wedges)
Tin of mandarin oranges
Three tablespoons of toasted almond flakes
Custard powder and sugar and milk (or coconut or oat milk) to make THICK custard
Cream or coconut cream in a spray can
It also helps to chant before lining the bowl with the pound cake, and as you pour at least 3 cups of booze over all the cake – Oh Holy Trifle – May my taste buds bless you forever.
So now, line the bowl as above –
Add in all the raspberries at the bottom of the bowl, then add the peaches on top of the raspberries.
Now, make jello with the juice of raspberries and peaches but use only half the liquid suggested so it is thick – pour all over the fruit and some of the cake.
Take a break and a wee drink, hug someone you love or take the dog for a walk before putting the bowl in the fridge to set for a bit.
Then cut the banana up and put it on the jello and fruit. Make the custard – make it thick and pour it on top of all this – and put it in the fridge to set –
You can then leave this for two days or so – it improves the taste.
The day you intend to eat this, add the cream on the top and decorate with mandarin orange segments.
Then sprinkle toasted almonds over everything and bow to your brilliance as a cook!
After the last serving, I strongly suggest that you put a note on the bowl saying –
“Anyone who sneaks down and eats this alone, without saying a blessing for a person who they love, DIES.” This makes it an attachment trifle – and EFTers are obsessed with attachment and emotional connection, so………………….
Happy holidays – May your taste buds and heart be singing – wherever you are and whatever the color of your skin, creed, sexual or gender orientation. In the pub, we were all family.
ENJOY!